The presence of sanitary conditions contributes to the health of all people, and a sanitation issue well recognized is that of public door handles, which can be contaminated with germs and other contagions, as well as contaminants left on the handle by a previous user of the handle. Among these contaminants are skin oils and common dirt, as well as potentially more harmful substances such as bacteria, fungi and other pathogens. Such contaminants easily can be transmitted to the hand of anyone who grasps the handle to open the door. Moreover, if the skin of the later user's hand is not intact due to lacerations, abrasions, or other sores, there is a high probability that percutaneous exposure to pathogens can occur. Even if the skin of the user's hand is intact, contaminants may remain viable on the hand and cause infection when the user contacts his eyes, nose, or mouth if these areas are contacted before thorough washing of the hand takes place.
Among the most potentially unsanitary door handles are those used on public restroom doors, hospital doors, and doors for accessing locations such as restaurants, stores, industrial buildings, commercial garages, and even office buildings. In addition to doors, numerous other potentially unsanitary handles also exist, such as grocery store carts, and each also provides the opportunity to pass germs and other contagions from one person to another. Providing cleanliness of such handles has long been a challenge, and has been one addressed by a number of prior devices. However, such prior devices tend to be expensive, overly complex, or require the replacement of an entire door or other object having the potentially unsanitary handle. Individual disposable handle protection items, such as napkins placed near the handle, have also been tried, but these approaches create the issue of disposable waste, which typically results in excess garbage and litter scattered around the area of use.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a simple handle apparatus that provides a sanitary surface for each person using a handle, thus protecting a later user from touching the same handle surface previously touched by another user, but that does not suffer from the deficiencies of conventional approaches. Moreover, a viable solution should be inexpensive, not overly complex, and should be capable of retrofitting existing doors, drawers, etc. The disclosed principles provide such a solution.